In the lead up to Christmas Eve (As the main day is celebrated on the 24th here in Finland), a few tasks have to get done. So we got the tree yesterday (a Serbian spruce) to have it ready to decorate today. The last of the present shopping of course. And as always, making and decorating gingerbread together.
The tree is decorated with mice and woollen socks.
This is about the only fun tradition for Christmas, as it is hands on and messy. We don't make the dough from scratch and instead by premade, frozen dough. It is easier than trying to find all the right ingredients for gluten-free baking that will actually work. There are heaps of recipes - most of them are not very good. They would be fine of course, if you had never eaten a normal gingerbread before, but they are not a great substitute. We should just bake normal ones.
Because I will eat most of them anyway.
The only tradition I have in regards to making gingerbread is to make and decorate some inappropriately. While I told Smallsteps I had made a heart with an arrow through it, it was a pair of lips and well... my wife knew what it was. The one pictured below came from a mould of a Santa clause, but I am not sure if that is how he celebrates before or after Christmas.
Yes. Childish behaviour.
We have a little bit of an issue this year, because Puusti our insane puppy, has never seen a Christmas tree before. So despite seeing millions of trees outside before, he has decided that this one is edible. The problem isn't him ruining the look, but that dogs aren't meant to eat pine needles as it can make them sick. You'd think that animals would have some innate sense about what it can and can't eat - but not Puusti.
After his evening "zoomies" as my wife calls them, where he sprints around for an hour or two, biting anything and everything possible that he knows he shouldn't be biting, he then collapsed in his bed under the tree. The hope is, that having him sleep there a bit will make him accustomed to the tree as a place to relax, not a restaurant.
Because my daughter is still into mice, going on six or more years now, we have lots of mouse decorations around the place. Like an insane family. However, I hope that she will remember these days fondly as a time where her parents let her lean into her interests. We also have stars in the windows and random Christmassy things scattered about the house, so with the smell of gingerbread on top, it is starting to feel like Christmas here.
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Taraz
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